Striving for International Competitiveness : Lessons from Electronics for Developing Countries

Electronics has become critically important in every country's attempt to restructure or build its competitiveness. The developments in electronics have given rise to an industry with an unprecedented growth record in terms of sales and exports, innovative capacity, and spin-off potential for related services. But electronics has also infiltrated into many other industries through the pervasiveness of its application potential. Instead of competing solely on cost, competitive advantage is now often obtained by those who have the (temporary) benefit of having mastered cutting-edge technology. To the fore has come a type of innovation that builds on relations with users, on interaction with suppliers, subcontractors, universities, industry associations, government institutes, and even potential competitors through various kinds of cooperative agreements. Thus, the competitiveness of a firm depends not only on its own strength, but also on the support it receives from the external environment ...